Retail stores conventionally stock a wide variety of items having different shapes and sizes. Many retail stores also tend to move items around the store for a variety of reasons, for example, depending on the time of the year for seasonal products or for specific sales or simply to rearrange displays. Retail sales stores have long been in need of display walls for merchandise that are versatile and provide for the hanging or displaying of a variety of items and for the reconfiguration of merchandise displays. Similarly, the individual consumer has long sought display walls that can be used to store various items such as tools and/or could be used to create a versatile shelving system to store a variety of items in the home, office, or garage.
In order for a display wall to be a commercially attractive product for retail stores and individual consumers, the display wall system should be inexpensive and easy to install. If the cost of the product is high and the amount of labor required to install the product is great, than the appeal of such a display wall will be greatly reduced. Additionally, the display wall must be aesthetically attractive so as to provide an attractive merchandise display or storage shelving system.
Slatwall products have been developed to provide a display wall capable of providing a relatively versatile system of displaying merchandise. For example, FIG. 10 depicts a slatwall section 100 including a base portion 102 having a front surface 104, a rear surface 105, a top portion 106 and a bottom portion 110. The base portion 102 has a plurality of slats 115 that project from the front surface 104 of the base portion 102. The slats 115 include a first portion 118 extending from the front surface 104 of the base portion 102 and a second portion 116 that extends in a direction parallel to the base portion 102. The second portion 116 includes an upwardly projecting lip 120 and a downwardly projecting lip 122. The upwardly projecting lip 120 and the downwardly projecting lip 122 on a slat work in conjunction with an upwardly projecting lip 120 and a downwardly projecting lip 122 on an adjacent slat to receive and hold display supports (not depicted).
The bottom portion 110 of the slatwall section 100 includes an elongated section 112 having a U-shaped portion 114 that extends beyond a lowermost slat 126 and downwardly projecting lip 128, and the top portion 106 includes a lip 108 that projects perpendicularly from the base portion 102 and is positioned behind an upwardly projecting lip 125 of an uppermost slat 124. The U-shaped portion 114 of a slatwall section 100 can be used in conjunction with the lip 108 of an adjacent slatwall section 200 to lock the slatwall sections together during installation.
The tight configuration between the lip 108 of slatwall section 200, the U-shaped portion 114 of slatwall section 100, and the upwardly projecting lip 125 of slatwall section 200 depicted in FIG. 10 is necessary in order to ensure a locking relationship between the adjacent slatwall sections, 100 and 200. The positioning of the lip 108 behind the upwardly projecting lip 125 and the tight configuration between the lip 108 of slatwall section 200, the U-shaped portion 114 of slatwall section 100, and the upwardly projecting lip 125 of slatwall section 200, makes installation of the slatwall sections 100 and 200 difficult. For example, the U-shaped portion 114 and the lip 108 must be connected together by mating the U-shaped portion 114 and the lip 108 at opposing side edges of the slatwall sections 100 and 200, respectively, and sliding one of the slatwall sections in a direction parallel to the slats 115. As the first slatwall section is typically mounted to a wall then a second slatwall section is mounted either below or above the first slatwall section, the second slatwall section must be slid along the wall in order to connect the lip 108 and the U-shaped portion 114 of the adjacent slatwall sections 100 and 200. Since the slatwall section are typically formed as wide units, and since the mounting wall may have numerous irregularities which could prevent the second slatwall section from sliding smoothly along the wall during connection with the first slatwall section, the slatwall configuration depicted in FIG. 10 is not ideal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,490 (hereinafter referred to as "the '490 patent") describes a slatwall section having a body with a plurality of spaced slats for receiving hangers and other display devices. The slatwall section (10) includes a lower coupling leg (20) and an upper coupling leg (16). The lower coupling leg (20) has a notch (22) provided on a rear side thereof for receiving the upper coupling leg (16) of another slatwall section. FIG. 1b depicts the coupling of two slatwall sections (12b and 12c) using a fastener (28). The upper coupling leg (16) of slatwall (12c) is matingly joined with the lower coupling leg (20) of slatwall section (12b) such that the holes (18 and 24) are axially aligned with each other, and leg (16) abuts notch (22). Once positioned such that holes (18 and 24) are axially aligned, fastener (28) is inserted therethrough to secure the connection between slatwall sections. The placement of holes (18 and 24) in the overlapping leg portions (16 and 20), respectively, forms the connection point of the two slatwall sections within slat (14).
The '490 patent also does not provide an ideal structure as the ends of the slatwall sections described therein fail to provide a structure that allows for easy alignment of adjacent sections during installation. Assuming the upper coupling leg (16) is positioned above the lower coupling leg (20) of slatwall section (12a) during mounting to the wall and assuming a lower coupling leg of an adjacent slatwall section is positioned adjacent the upper coupling leg (16) of the slatwall section (12a), one or more fasteners (28) must be positioned within the holes (18 and 24) in order to maintain the coupling of the adjacent slatwall section with slatwall section (12a) and to ensure proper alignment. It would be difficult for an installer to simultaneously position and hold the lower coupling leg of the adjacent slatwall section adjacent the upper coupling leg (16) of the slatwall section (12a), align the holes (18 and 24), and insert one or more fastening members (28) within the holes (18 and 24) in order to align the slatwall sections. Installation would be even more difficult if the adjacent slatwall section is mounted below the already mounted slatwall section (12a), as the upper coupling leg of the adjacent slatwall section would simply slide out of the notch (22) of the slatwall section (12a) under the force of gravity until the fastening members (28) are inserted within the holes (18 and 24).
Consequently, a need exists for a display wall section that includes features to aid in the alignment of adjacent display wall section in order to facilitate ease of installation of such display wall sections.